What's your choice?
by siriushermionelover
Summary: If only some people were able to make it off the Black Pearl when it was taken down by the Kraken.


Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters

They sat watching the sun set on that little island. Not very far away was where the Black Pearl was taken down by the Kraken.

They had almost gotten away. The fought hard against the Kraken. Every one of them. Everyone of them dying. Everyone screaming. Those tentacles gripping someone and carrying them from the ship and into the water. Knowing that there was no hope once they felt that tentacle encircle some part of their body.

Almost all of the crew was dead by the time Jack was able to shoot the barrels of gun powder and rum. Making the only choice that was left, he ordered them all into the long boat and to make for shore in hopes that they would reach it when the ship was taken down. They fact the they would then be deserted on a island with no quick means to escape, miles of ocean on all sides, and the crew of the Dutchman able to come after them, well, no one thought of that.

They only thing they could do was try to get off the Black Pearl. What came after would have to wait.

They almost made it. All of them.

The Kraken was not silent for a long as they thought it would be. They thought they would have time to get the longboat away from the ship. Put some distance between the creature and its prey. What no one counted on was the shear anger and pain the Kraken was experiencing and its desire to inflict pain on others.

They had only started getting into the long boat when the Pearl was shot upwards from a force from below, and then rocked heavily from side to side. The long boat fell into the sea and started to drift off. Cotton, the only one to have been in the boat when the Kraken attacked, was the only one now safe as the creature put all its energy into the people still on board.

Will ordered everyone into a circle and they grabbed what they could for weapons. Jack, Will, Elizabeth and Gribbs with their pistols; Pintel and Marty with clubs that were actually just pieces of broken ship; and Ragetti with an ax.

It was no use.

It grabbed Marty and Gribbs first. The strong tentacles didn't even flinch when shot it. Before the two men were even dragged below the waves Pintel and Will were taken.

Elizabeth felt someone grab her hand and pull her towards the side of the ship. She tried to struggle. She needed to help. The person stopped and turned her towards them.

She looked up into the frighten face of Ragetti. "We need to get off the ship" he said, quickly dropping to the deck and pulling her down as a tentacle flew over head.

She gasped, "But the others! Will! We need to help them!" she screamed and tried to run back to the center of the ship where Jack was still fighting and avoiding the arms of the Kraken.

"It's after 'im, not us!", Ragetti forced her to listen to him. "It does't care 'bout' us. It's only after 'im" he said again.

Elizabeth forced herself to listen but before anything else could be done the ship dripped dangerous to the right and Ragetti used this to push Elizabeth and himself over board.

The terror of being in that water with the creature tore at Elizabeth. She could no longer see any of the others. "This way! Swim, hurry", she heard from behind her and turned and saw Ragetti already starting to swim towards the island in the distance.

She was torn. However at the time she noticed that the waters has gotten still. She watched in horror as many tentacles slowly reached up along the sides of the ship. She quickly turned and started after Ragetti. She didn't look ahead. Only swam as quickly as she could in her desperation to get away.

"Come on, o'er here!", she heard. She bobbed her head up and saw a wet Ragetti and dry Cotton sitting in the longboat and gesturing to her frantic. With much effort she swam the remaining distance and, with a lot of help, was able to haul herself into the boat.

Panting she tried to catch her breath. She felt someone putting an old blanket around her arms and looked up into Cotton's old sea weathered face, looking down on her with a mixture of fear and relief. She gave a small smile, the most she was able to produce, "Thank-you", she muttered.

Ragetti gasped from the front of the boat. Cotton and Elizabeth looked up and were transfixed watching as the Black Pearl slowly broke apart in the Krakens arms and was pulled down into the sea. Within a few seconds the ocean was clam once again.

"Wind in their sails! Wind their sails!" squawked Cottons parrot from his place on one of the oars. The three people looked towards where the Dutchman was in the distance and saw it submerge back into the sea.

"It's over" whispered Ragetti.

As she watched the sunset from the beach Elizabeth was struck with a feeling of despair. They were all gone. Will, Jack, Gibbs. Ragetti was quietly sitting beside her and occasioning rubbing his eye. She heard him mutter once, "I got to stop rubbing. 'E said to stop rubbing it". She knew he was thinking of Pintel. This was the first time she had ever seen one without the other and it was a said sight.

They had already decided to spend the night on this island and then heard to Tia Delma the next morning. They didn't really know what to do but it was an option where there was no other option so it was the only thing they could do. It would also help to be around someone they could almost safely say was a friend. She might to able to get them to...to where? Where would they go now? Ragetti and Cotton to Tortuga? Herself to Port Royal? Back to the life of a Governor's daughter? Her father would be so relieved she was safe. He would be said for Will's death but would not mourn him as a son-in-law. He never truly accepted her choice but respected in and allowed it whereas many fathers would not have.

'To many things unsaid to too many people', she though bitterly, pulling her fingers in the sand.

She turned and looked over to where they had placed the fire. Cotton and his parrot were already asleep. She was glad that he had been spared the fate of the others.

She turned back out towards the sea. The sun had almost entirely set by now. She slowly cleared her throat.

"Thank-you" she said, not looking at the figure sitting next to her.

Ragetti startled at the sound of her voice and turned towards her, his wooden eye rolling in his socket. "huh?" he asked.

Elizabeth huffed, turned to look at him, and bit her lip to stop from smiling at his eye. No longer did it frighten her but actually caused her to smile. "I said", she begin, "Thank-you. For getting me off the ship" she further explained.

"Oh", he said and sank down into himself. "You're welcome" . Then his gaze went back out to sea and stayed there.

She reached out and took his hand and her causing him to look at her with hesitation and surprise. "I wish we could have saved them. Him too", She whispered and she hoped he knew she was talking about Pintel.

"It just happen'd so fast. No time to 'et 'n the boat" he said softly.

Elizabeth nodded began to move her fingers in a comforting circular motion on Ragetti's hand, unbeknown to her but like lightning to the pirate beside her who become as still as the ocean with no wind.

Elizabeth was suddenly tired. Bone-weary. She let her hand slip from Ragetti and stood up. She startled to move over to the fire to sleep when she hesitated and then walked back and stood in front of Ragetii who looked up at her with confusion.

She was a woman who had just seen the death of many of the people she was close to. She needed comfort. But she also needed to give comfort to the person who saved her life not once, but twice thanks to his using the ax to hack the tentacle of the Kraken that had started to drag her across the deck, and who also needed the comfort of another person.

"Thank-you", she whispered again and bent down and pressed her lips gently against his rough, chapped ones. Ragetti froze and Elizabeth, who had intended for it to be a quick peck, was instantly overwhelmed by the need to feel comfort and so she kissed harder and deepened the kiss. Finally she felt him response and for several minutes they took the comfort that only another person could give.

When they finally broke apart they were both breathing heavy and they stared at each other. Elizabeth then straigthened up and with a soft, "Good-night", left Ragetti to his thoughts as she headed for bed. She couldn't entirely be sure of it but she hoped that it wasn't just the wind making her hear things when she heard a gently, "good-night" in response.

To Tia Delma, Singapore, World's End they found their friends who were lost to the Kraken and to the Locker since they were taken the same time as Jack, and now they all fought against the Dutchman and the East India Trading Company.

With the wind and the rain blowing all around her Elizabeth was spin around by the man fighting new her. "ELizabeth" asked Will, "Will you marry me?"

Elizabeth looked at him and it was as if time froze as memories from past months came to her.

_"We need to get off the ship"_

_A hand reaching for hers in Tia Delma's hut._

_Arms catching her as she trip as the ship to Singapore rocked._

_Standing side by side looking up at the night sky and they sailed under a full moon. The obvious joy he found in being under its light without the curse._

_Practicing sword fighting during the day._

_Eyes lingering and hands holding a bit too long._

_The look in his eye when she pulled his head down for a kiss for the first time since they were at that island._

_The tremble in his arms as he held her after their first night together. The burying of his nose into her hair when he thought she was asleep._

_His whispered words of 'I love you' that followed._

_The feeling of another layer of clothing covered her body as they approached World's End in the freezing waters, and seeing him walk away, no longer wearing his coat._

_The look in his eye when Will ran up to her and kissed her in Davy Jones's Locker._

_The look on his face that when she saw her dead father but Jack got to her first to comfort her._

_The look of fright when she left with the other pirates after the returned to the world of the living._

_The pride and smirk he sent her when she arrived and became King of the Brethren Court._

The look on his face now as he looked at her from across the deck where he and Pintel were currently fighting their own set of enemies but obviously heard when Will asked.

Will moved closer to her. "ELizabeth", he shouted above the wind, "I made my choice, what's yours? he asked. She looked into the eyes of the boy she once loved to across the deck where a one-eyed pirate was currently ignoring those around him and gazing at her. He suddenly looked like he had a large lump in his throat and then was forced to break eye-contact as another member of Dutchman's crew came towards them.

"Elizabeth", Will asked again, shaking her arm a little to get her attention.

"My choice?" she asked. She gave one more look towards the other side of the deck and saw Ragetti looking over at her every chance he could share, and many a bit more then he should have considering his was on the defense.

She looked up at Will and smiled. He smiled back thinking he knew her answer but his smiled faded when he heard her say, "I'm sorry Will", and Elizabeth removed herself from his grasp. Leaving him standing there with his sword hung limp in his hand he watched as she ran over to where Ragetti and Pintel were battling.

With quick work she was able to get rid of Ragetti's opponent and the two stared at each other. Then with surprising force Elizabeth lunched herself towards the pirate and kissed him deeply. Ragetti was taken off guard but as soon as he regained his balanced he kissed back just as hard and with desperation, his arms tightening possessive. Backing away she smiled at him. He looked back at her with a questioning stare but not loosening his grip.

"What about 'Im?" he asked, meaning Will.

Elizabeth smiled and leaned in. When they were practically touching nose to nose she whispered, looking straight into his blue eye, "I love you too".

No flames please


End file.
